“We should use and maintain what we have (except nukes), manufacture mainly two-stroke diesel bus (and fire engine) parts and address climate change exclusively with municipal abortion funding.”
Letter: Women need to use their voting power
“We women have to wake up and use our voting power to support what we need. This is clearly the way to protect the future.”
Letter: Promote trees, not roads, in our national forests
“This forest management plan was supposed to be a framework for long-term sustainability of our national forests and carbon storage but instead puts wildlife habitats and old-growth areas at an increased risk, catering to new roads that will increase water pollution and habitat fragmentation.”
Letter: Solutions needed for downtown homeless situation
“I feel like if this situation isn’t seriously addressed, it will have a long-term negative effect on Asheville and its many businesses that rely on tourism.”
Wheels on the bus
Letter: A disconcerting downtown experience
“Clusters of mostly men had gathered in the shadows of every doorway. No one spoke to us or even acknowledged us, but I was glad I wasn’t alone.”
Letter: Asheville’s sad descent
“It has become a place where local people cannot afford to live and many of us no longer want to visit.”
Letter: Downtown problems need city, county attention
“I have felt a creepy vibe when I have gone downtown because of the difficulty of finding parking and the homeless folks camped out on sidewalks.”
Mind the gap
Letter: More coverage needed on women’s reproductive rights
“Other than a Planned Parenthood ad, I saw no mention whatsoever of the effect of that Supreme Court decision on Buncombe County or on family planning services in this area.”
Letter: Ohio derailment raises local concern
“An incident like the Ohio disaster could wreck tourism, not to mention our everyday lives, for many years.”
Letter: Save our libraries — again
“Buncombe commissioners have so little regard for libraries and librarians that it’s OK to make our woefully underfunded system worse for both patrons and staff.”
Letter: Ask TDA to support homes for workers
“But we can directly help our county’s workers, the people who drive our tourism economy — and thus drive contributions to the TDA’s coffers — by asking the TDA to give some money back to build housing for such workers.”
Letter: National Guard could help with downtown safety
“Why not bring in the National Guard to help assist the Asheville Police Department in the downtown area?”
Letter: How to pay for downtown remedies
“The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority is sitting on millions of dollars in its coffers and should spend some of its money making downtown Asheville the tourism haven that it promises it is in all of its marketing efforts, but their promise is currently not delivered.”
Letter: The dynamic of ‘travelers’ and police
“The lack of regular patrolling invites chaos and boundary testing. This has been a long-running issue and can only be solved by a community united by bold government leadership.”
Letter: Improving dreadful downtown Asheville
“Hire 40% more policemen, pay them a salary so they can live in Asheville and put them where they are needed the most — downtown Asheville.”
Letter: The sad decline of downtown Asheville
“We all know the priorities, and they are past needing to be dealt with.”
Letter: Guaranteed results for downtown’s woes
“Want to see immediate improvements to the ghastly state of downtown Asheville?”
Letter: How quickly can downtown be saved (again)?
“How could things have gotten this bad without intervention? How quickly will this situation of fear and crime be turned around?”
